THE WITCHING TIDE, by Margaret Meyer (Moa, $37.99)
Martha Hallybread is a village midwife who has not spoken in four decades, and her silence initially comes in handy when the witch-hunter Makepeace comes to her East Anglian community of Cleftwater in 1645. No one likes a gossip, and Martha being so very self-contained means she has fewer reasons than everyone else to be dobbed in
